I heard there is a terrorist organisation printing cash and distributing it widely,allowing people to buy child porn and finance terrorism. I've heard you can send it anonymously in the mail and trade it in person for DRUGS!!! OMG!!! They really should ban cash. Do it for the children nao.

I heard there is a terrorist organisation printing cash and distributing it widely,allowing people to buy child porn and finance terrorism. I've heard you can send it anonymously in the mail and trade it in person for DRUGS!!! OMG!!! They really should ban cash. Do it for the children nao.

Incorrect analogy.

Banknotes are protected by the secret tokens. In the case of mass occurrence of fakes, they will be published and any bank or cashier can verify the authenticity of banknotes.

I heard there is a terrorist organisation printing cash and distributing it widely,allowing people to buy child porn and finance terrorism. I've heard you can send it anonymously in the mail and trade it in person for DRUGS!!! OMG!!! They really should ban cash. Do it for the children nao.

Incorrect analogy.

Banknotes are protected by the secret tokens. In the case of mass occurrence of fakes, they will be published and any bank or cashier can verify the authenticity of banknotes.

If your government wants to abolish cash, and switch to only smart cards and bank accounts, they could. Just stop printing it, and destroy all cash that is put on the bank.

Or even simpler, if there is no organization backing cash then no one will accept it as payment. Unless you're talking about gold coins, or made from some other (digital) commodity (such as bitcoins), of course...

I remember there has been talk of abolishing cash in some circles. It would make it very easy for them to monitor everything, a wet dream of almost all governments these days.

Bitcoin Core developer [PGP]Warning: For most, coin loss is a larger risk than coin theft. A disk can die any time. Regularly back up your wallet through File → Backup Wallet to an external storage or the (encrypted!) cloud. Use a separate offline wallet for storing larger amounts.

I remember there has been talk of abolishing cash in some circles. It would make it very easy for them to monitor everything, a wet dream of almost all governments these days.

Yes, but the practicalities of such a thing keeps getting in their way.

"The powers of financial capitalism had another far-reaching aim, nothing less than to create a world system of financial control in private hands able to dominate the political system of each country and the economy of the world as a whole. This system was to be controlled in a feudalist fashion by the central banks of the world acting in concert, by secret agreements arrived at in frequent meetings and conferences. The apex of the systems was to be the Bank for International Settlements in Basel, Switzerland, a private bank owned and controlled by the world's central banks which were themselves private corporations. Each central bank...sought to dominate its government by its ability to control Treasury loans, to manipulate foreign exchanges, to influence the level of economic activity in the country, and to influence cooperative politicians by subsequent economic rewards in the business world."

He said that all the proposals were radical but worth consideration for Japan. Without physical cash, a central bank can set rates exactly where it likes

With all physical constraints removed, the banks are free to do everything they want.

I sincerely hope bitcoin catches on before it goes that far...

Bitcoin Core developer [PGP]Warning: For most, coin loss is a larger risk than coin theft. A disk can die any time. Regularly back up your wallet through File → Backup Wallet to an external storage or the (encrypted!) cloud. Use a separate offline wallet for storing larger amounts.